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tv   Early Start  CNN  November 12, 2012 5:00am-7:00am EST

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our name, and we carry on knowing that our best days always lie ahead. on this day, we thank all of our veterans from all of our wars, not just for your service to this country, but for reminding us why america is and always will be the greatest nation on >> i'm don lemon. good night. sex scandal at the cia. lawmakers now questioning who knew what and when about david petraeus and his extramarital affair. hurtling toward the fiscal cliff. lawmakers leaving the door open for compromise in congress. >> road rage on the nascar track. a crash leads to a wild melee between pit crews on live tv. >> that was ugly. >> it was. good morning, and welcome to "early start" i'm alison kosik. >> good morning, everybody, i'm
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alina cho. john and zoraida have the day off. it is 5:00 a.m. let's get started. up first, more fallout from the sudden and shocking resignation of cia director david petraeus, because of an extramarital affair. there are new details, and new questions this morning, about an fbi investigation that led to his departure. the fbi uncovered evidence of an affair between petraeus and his biographer paula broadwell, after she allegedly sent harassing e-mails to another woman she jealously thought was too close to petraeus. new york congressman peter king says there are far more questions than answers. >> this seems to have been going on for several months. yet now it appears that they're saying that the fbi didn't realize until election day that general petraeus was involved. it just doesn't add up. and you've got this type of investigation, the fbi investigating e-mails, the e-mails leading to the cia director, and it's taking four months to find out that the cia director was involved. >> cnn's barbara starr is
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following this developing story, she's live at the pentagon for us. good morning. tell us, what is the status of the investigation right now? >> well, good morning, alina. "the new york times" is now reporting this morning that the investigation actually began some months ago. but, again, the questions continue to mount. it wasn't until election night that the director of national intelligence, james clapper, was informed that this was all going on. the white house informed the next day,and the president the day after that. so how you have an fbi investigation, which whatever went on did involve looking into the matters of general david petraeus, your cia director, and the president isn't informed. this is one of the key questions congress, the congressional committee's concerned, they weren't informed. so expect to see a lot more about this for the next many days. >> barbara, let's talk a little bit more about that. as you mentioned the white house wasn't notified until 5:00 p.m.
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on election night. the president wasn't told until the thursday after election day. house and senate intelligence committees weren't told until last week. i know the justice department likes to say that they followed protocol. there was no evidence of a national security breach and there was no criminal activity because petraeus was a retired general. and yet, isn't there a perception problem here? i mean, you've been covering the pentagon a long time. does this check out, in your opinion? >> well, you know, i think it remains to be seen. one of the wrinkles here is that the house majority leader, eric cantor, apparently was told about it by someone in the cia back in october. that, according to press reports. so how is it that some people knew and some people didn't? sources are telling our producers and journalists here at cnn that there was no indication of a security breach by petraeus, no indication of some unauthorized disclosure of classified information. but clearly, congress is going to look into this a lot more. they want a lot more answers,
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alina. >> that's right. and the big question is will petraeus testify on thursday when the senate intelligence committee meets. all right, barbara starr at the pentagon. thank you. and much more on the petraeus scandal later on "starting point." soledad is going to be talking with cnn military analyst general james "spider" marks and retired army brigadier general mark kimmitt. president obama observed veterans day by laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns at arlington national cemetery, as he does. he paid tribute to service members who made the ultimate sacrifice. >> on this day we thank all of our veterans from all of our wars, not just for your service to this country, but for reminding us why america is and always will be the greatest nation on earth. >> the president also pointed out that this is the first veterans day in ten years that no americans are serving in iraq. about 50 days to go until
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the fiscal cliff. the big news this weekend was conservative pundit and weekly standard editor bill kristol telling republicans it was time to fall on their swords. >> the conservative movement has to pull back, let people float their ideas, let's have a serious debate. don't scream and yell when one person says, you know what? it won't -- if we raise republicans. i don't understand why republicans don't hate obama's offer? >> make it a million. >> really the republican party is going to fall on its sword for a bunch of millionaires. half of them are voting democratic. and half of them live in hollywood. >> but the question remains, what would a deal look like and is there time left this year to put a full deal together? jonathan allen is a senior washington correspondent for politico. he joins us now from washington. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> so let me first get to -- i'll get to the fiscal cliff but first want to get your reaction to the petraeus story. there are reports this morning that the fbi and the justice department knew about this over the summer, as early as over the
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summer, and some members of congress are complaining they didn't know about it. >> members of congress always wish they knew what was going on before they get informed of things. that's a typical complaint whenever the administration comes forward with something. i would say this, there's either a situation where the fbi believes there's a potential security breach or there is not. if they believed there was a potential security breach they probably should have informed members of congress so that something could be done about it or gotten petraeus out of his job. what we've heard so far is they didn't believe that there was a potential security breach, which leads to the question of why david petraeus ended up in the position he did. and i think the answer is, he decided to resign. it's not entirely clear to me that he would have been forced to resign over this, but what he did do or maybe what he thought he was going to do was slow the story down, perhaps get some of the gory details out -- sort of out as not part of the public domain. obviously that failed. >> do you think that -- one more
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question on this. do you think that the hearing this week on benghazi had anything to do with it? because now it looks like he's not going to be testifying. >> i don't. whoever gets sent up by the cia to the hill is going to have to answer the same questions about benghazi. this is obviously, you know, a personal -- i don't want to use the word tragedy, but certainly a prnly tough time for the petraeus family. they've got to deal with the fallout of this. i think this is much more about his personal life, and his relationship with his family, than it is about testifying before congress. the man's testified before congress on any number of top issues before. >> on to the fiscal cliff. do you think we're closer to a compromise, do you think republicans will sort of fall on the sword? >> i don't think we're any closer to a compromise. in july, august of 2011 they were very close to a compromise, president obama, speaker john boehner, basically had a deal in place, it ended up getting blown up at the last minute. i think there is a, perhaps, a
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new conciliation on both sides. i think they were waiting for the election to get over. i think the attitudes are positive on both sides. and i think they've got the framework for a deal already set up from last year. so i don't think that there are any closer but i also don't think they were that far away last year in 2011. >> do you think that closing the loopholes would be enough for a deficit reduction package? >> it doesn't appear that that's going to raise enough revenue to get to where the democrats want that to be. republicans say they don't want to raise rates. there are some -- there's some budget chicanery that can go on in terms of dealing with one baseline instead of another baseline. that's what it looked like boehner wanted to do last year. there are a lot of different options here. it's interesting, bill kristol from the weekly standard appeared to be talking to grover norquist, the anti-tax activist in those comments that he played earlier, talking about one person being able to hold this up. grover norquist very influential in washington. he's the guy that holds the line on taxes, holds republicans'
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feet to the fire. it will be interesting to see how many of them are willing to depart from that. >> jonathan allen, senior washington correspondent for politico. thanks. >> take care. >> other stories we're following. a devastating blast out of nowhere. local and federal authorities are still trying to determine what caused a massive explosion that ripped through an indianapolis neighborhood, killing two people, and injuring seven others. the blast and fireballs leveled two homes and damaged nearly 80 others. it was felt some three miles away. scores of residents had to be evacuated from the area. the damage is estimated to be more than $3.5 million. a partial recount in that heated razor-thin race for florida's district 18th congressional seat narrows the gap a bit between republican congressman allen west and democrat patrick murphy. but it isn't enough to trigger an automatic recount. murphy is still ahead by a margin of more than half a percent. west's campaign manager is vowing legal action. a look at sports now. a nice run but the atlanta falcons are no longer the only
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undefeated team in the nfl. after winning their first eight games, the falcons fell to the new orleans saints sunday by a score of 31-27. new orleans quarterback drew brees tossed three touchdown passes as he led the saints to victory over atlanta. alabama's run at another college football championship is in serious jeopardy after they were upset this weekend by texas a&m. that sent the previously unbeaten and perceived unbeatable crimson tide from number one to number four in the bcs standing. the shocking loss has kansas state and oregon on course to play in the national title game. superstorm sandy no longer dominates the national headlines but certainly if you live in this area you know it's still very much a crisis for people living in those hardest-hit areas. we are going to go live to new york's rockaways coming up next. s that make kids happy. and even fewer that make moms happy too. with wholesome noodles and bite sized chicken, nothing brings you together like chicken noodle soup from campbell's.
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first came hurricane sandy, then the nor'easter, two weeks after it all started, people in the far rockaways section of queens still do not have electricity. not only that, it's tough to get around, as you can see there. people there are out of food, supplies, medication. they are desperate for help. our victor blackwell is live in far rockaway with an update. victor, good morning. >> good morning, alina. the situation here still very sad, very dangerous. i start with the bad news that came for this community, the death toll from the superstorm sandy here in new york city has risen to 43. and that additional person was a 77-year-old man who lived in this far rockaway community who died at a hospital as a result of the injuries he suffered after falling down the stairs. and you've mentioned that it's dangerous to get around. that's absolutely right. there is a very thick fog here. even a blowing mist that possibly you can see on the camera. you can't see really five, ten feet in front of the vehicle as you're driving through this community. now imagine the eight-foot sand
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dunes in the middle of the street from the sand that washed in from the storm just about two weeks ago. two elements of good news. first, the temperatures aren't as frigid as they have been after that snowstorm came through a few days ago. and, you can see over my shoulder, power is back on for some in this community. while on this side of the street there are lights for these people who are waking up in this community, but just take a few steps with me over here and i'll show you that this apartment building over here is still in complete darkness. all the people here still without power. now, the only light you see here is from our light here in this community. and maybe you can see what i was talking about, the mist blowing that makes it so difficult to see. but we're learning from lipa as a truck just rolled by not too long ago that there are still 95,000 customers without power across three counties, alina. >> victor, the storm, as we've been reporting, caused about $50 billion, which is staggering, in new york alone.
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the governor, i understand, is going to be asking for some federal help, right? talk about that. >> yeah, he's putting to the a plan, it's still being drafted, about $30 billion, asking for federal aid from fema, asking for money to update the travel and transportation here in the city of new york. also, asking to upgrade the petroleum reserves, so that we don't have the problems we're seeing with gas lines and going to a rationing of odd days for the tags and even numbers. so he's putting together that plan and will submit it to congress. the question is, will he get the money? >> victor blackwell in the far rockaway section of queens. one of the hardest-hit areas, post-hurricane sandy. victor, thank you. it's 16 minutes after the hour. let's get you up to date. members of congress are demanding answers from the cia, the fbi and the white house about the chain of events that led to the stunning resignation of cia director david petraeus.
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he stepped down after admitting to an extramarital affair with his biographer paula broadwell. the affair came to light because of an fbi investigation into alleged harassing e-mails broadwell was sending to another woman close to petraeus. investigators are still trying to figure out why a 64-year-old man walked into a detroit area police station and opened fire. he shot an officer in the shoulder yesterday, before other officers returned fire and killed him. the wounded officer is expected to make a full recovery. the news director at the bbc and her deputy are both out off a broadcaster report wrongly linking a former conservative politician to child abuse. helen bowden and steven mitchell are stepping aside. the head of the cbs george entwistle resigned over the weekend. >> did you see this video yet? if you haven't you should. a wreck on the track led to an all-out brawl during sunday's nascar race in phoenix. here's what happened. jeff gordon, number 24, intentionally took out number
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15, clint bowyer in response to an earlier bumping incident. when bowyer got back to the garage area, his crew came after him and the fight was on. bowyer then tried to confront gordon, but crew members managed to keep the two drivers apart. >> as if nascar racing wasn't exciting enough, that adds another element to it. >> it certainly does. >> 5:17 in the morning. time for your early read. your local news that's making national headlines. experts warning that u.s. airlines may soon run out of people to fly their planes. according to "the wall street journal," airlines are facing what could be their most serious pilot shortage since the 1960s. it said more than half of american pilots are over 50, and there are not going to be enough qualified candidates to replace the thousands of pilots who will soon reach the mandatory retirement age of 65. and new federal regulations for newly hired pilots making it even tougher. >> you know what that means?
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price hikes. >> oh, yes. >> airline prices are going to go up. from the hollywood reporter, ruby slippers not included, but dorothy's iconic blue gingham dress from "the wizard of oz" has a new home. someone paid $480,000 for the dress at auction this weekend. for the record, wasn't me. the costume was one of several pieces of hollywood history up for sale from julian's auction house in beverly hills. items from marilyn monroe, steve mcqueen and julie andrews were also sold. for an expanded look at all of our top stories, head to our blog, cnn.com/earlystart. a look ahead to the opening bell on wall street, after what was a really rough week for your 401(k). i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps,
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(sfx: loud thud sound) awhat strange place. geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. welcome back. it's 23 minutes past. minding your business this morning, u.s. stock futures are up, indicating markets will open higher this morning. the markets could use that. but still a lot of volatility in the markets right now. and it's mostly because of the looming fiscal cliff. >> aren't we sick of hearing that? day 50. >> the s&p 500. the best indicator for the stocks that are in your 401(k), it's fallen about 2.5% since election day. this week we're going to get several reports on the manufacturing sector. those hopefully will give us a little bit of more insight into how economic recovery is going. drawing attention away from the gridlock in washington over the fiscal cliff. >> yeah, right. if that can really happen. >> the focus really is on the
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fiscal cliff. but europe's debt crisis also in focus this week. parliament passed a budget for 2013 last night. it's a key step that gets the country closer to $40 billion in additional bailout money from the european union. and today eurozone finance ministers are meeting in brussels to discuss the next steps for greece and the overall debt problem in the region. coming up, the fbi was investigating over the summer, yet the white house says it did not know about the affair involving its cia director until after the election. the timing of the revolutions, and other questions in this bombshell scandal, coming up. and if you're leaving the house right now, you're leaving really early, you can watch us any time though on your desk top or mobile phone, go to cnn.com/tv. dry mouth may start off as an irritant.
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the petraeus affair shakes washington. lawmakers now questioning why they weren't told, even though the fbi had been investigating for months. an american journalist believed to be held hostage in syria, his parents making an emotional plea for his release. the new coach of the l.a. lakers, and it's not the guy everyone's been talking about. can you believe it? it's not phil jackson. we're going to tell you who it was. good morning, everybody. welcome back to "early start." it's 28 minutes after the hour. i'm alina cho. >> and i'm alison kosik. john berman and zoraida sambolin are off today. it is 28 minutes past the hour. we're learning more this morning about the dramatic yawn fall of cia director david petraeus after an affair with his biographer. it's triggered new questions about an fbi investigation and demands from lawmakers concerned about a possible breach of national security.
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cnn's barbara star is following developments for us. she's live at the pentagon. barbara, good morning. talk to us about the timing of this investigation. >> well, good morning, alison. apparently it all started several months ago when the fbi began investigating a complaint about harassing e-mails a woman was receiving. those e-mails were tracked back to paula broadwell. so, the investigation proceeds. by all accounts, no evidence of any security breach at this point. but, it's the timing that is raising questions. it was election night, last tuesday night, when the director of national intelligence was first informed about the investigation. the white house, the next day. the president the day after that. and congress did not find out until friday as it was virtually happening. this now raising numerous questions on capitol hill. how is it that the president wasn't told? how is it that the intelligence committees on capitol hill, which are supposed to be notified of any critical
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developments, were not told either? alison? >> petraeus was supposed to, or was supposed to testify in senate and house intelligence committee hearings on the 9/11 benghazi attacks that killed four americans, including an ambassador. the acting director is now expected to take his place. but can petraeus still be called to testify? i mean more specifically, what is precluding him to testify other than a very embarrassing scandal going on? he still is most camable of being the star witness, don't you think? >> well, you know, congress can always reserve the right, and enact a subpoena to compel him to testify. but the senate intelligence committee chairwoman, dianne feinstein, from california, said some things that give you a big hint about where this might be headed. have a listen. >> do you think you need to hear from petraeus? >> we may well. and we may well ask. i think that's up to the committee. i think we should have this first hearing, which is the way they wanted to set it up, and then the committee will make the decision. >> so, the man who will testify
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is mike more re, petraeus' deputy at cia, a longstanding, highly respected intelligence professional. certainly he has all the information. maybe a political question, does congress want to compel petraeus to come out in public after all of this, and tell what he knows? >> wouldn't it be more politically expedient to compel him instead of may well have him come and testify to put all these conspiracy theorists to bed? >> well, you know, politics always trumps, doesn't it? i think that it's an unprecedented situation. so if they want to subpoena him, that may well be more of a political decision. the democrats, of course, control that committee on the senate side. on the house side, where it is controlled by the republicans, perhaps a different question and we will be watching very carefully to see if they have more of an appetite for making petraeus come to capitol hill. >> okay. barbara starr, thanks so much.
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we're going to have much more on the petraeus scandal starting later today on "starting point." soledad is going to be talking with cnn military analyst general james spider marks, and retired army brigadier general mark kimmitt. >> we look forward to that. meanwhile, president obama honoring america's veterans in a wreath-laying ceremony to mark veterans day, as he does every year. the president marked the so the up occasion at arlington national cemetery. applauding the service of those who have gone above and beyond to serve their country. >> today, a proud nation expresses our gratitude. but we do so, mindful that no ceremony or parade, no hug or handshake is enough to truly honor that service. >> the president also noted this is the first veterans day in ten years without americans serving in iraq. in new york city, they marched in the annual veterans day parade, but this year was different. the united veterans war council,
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which organizes the parade, promoted sunday's event as a rally for storm victims, collecting winter coats for those displaced and still without power, two weeks after superstorm sandy. >> it's great that they did that. people in the american west are still digging out after a major blast of winter. parts of utah, including salt lake city, were hit hard with snow. our alexandra steele is here with a look at the forecast. well, unbelievable. some parts of that area got 48 inches, alexandra? >> 51! >> unbelievable. >> oh. you know, the first big storm really coming in in earnest. if you're a ski lover, snow bird doesn't open until the 17th. but maybe this is a harbinger of things to come for a great snow season in the west. let's take i right now to north dakota to show you what it looks like on saturday there, as well. this first big storm coming in to bismarck. crossing the country, and as it does, it's leaving its mark on a few different notes. what only was the snow, the rain, even severe weather, and
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even temperatures dropping precipitously behind this. so here's a look at the snow. 51 in snowbird. in montana, 23. salt lake picking up 15 inches. so storm system moving eastward. this is it. this is the cold front. much colder air behind it. temperatures 10 to 20 degrees below average behind this. ahead of it, certainly warmer than average. big picture, warm ahead of the front on the eastern seaboard and the southeast. colder behind it, believe it or not the next system coming in to the pacific northwest, hot on the heels of the first one. here's the future radar with this front. this is through tuesday. tomorrow, unfortunately, it makes its way to the eastern seaboard. those hit so hard by sandy. and then of course the nor'easter. kind of a quick hitter for the day on tuesday. but look what happens temperaturewise behind it. to give you a little perspective. chicago, 70 yesterday. 36 today. and really, these temperatures, too, syracuse, 70 today, in the 40s by tuesday. new york, 40s by wednesday. and all incredibly warm, guys,
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today on the east. temperatures in the 60s, but then this front moves through and it's a potent one. temperatures dropping off 20 degrees. >> you don't know whether to wear a coat or not. i think rob's off because he's skiing in park city, utah? >> if you know him you think he would be. but i think he's in new york doing some superstorm sandy work. >> he needs a rest. thanks so much. we'll check back with you later. sunday night football action the bears and texas in chicago. it was a big night for houston's ariane foster. he rushed for 102 yards on 29 carries and scored the game's only touchdown. the texas defense was all over jay cutler. they nabbed two interceptions before knocking him out of the game with a concussion. houston 13-chicago 6. >> the l.a. lakers have a new coach and it's not phil jackson. former knicks coach mike d'antoni will replace mike brown who was fired last week. d'antoni has signed a four-year deal with the lakers. now espn says lakers management
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wanted phil jackson to return for that third stint as coach. even met with him over the weekend. but jackson apparently wanted more than the lakers were willing to pay. they couldn't come to terms. apparently he wanted a limited travel schedule and a two-year contract worth $10 million. >> demands, demands. >> lakers said yeah, we love you. not that much. >> yeah, exactly. the fallout over the david petraeus scandal continues to grow this morning. key members of congress. they want to know why they weren't in the loop while the fbi investigated the cia director's affair. we'll talk about that coming upj ? campbell's has 24 new soups that will make it drop over, and over again. ♪ from jammin' jerk chicken, to creamy gouda bisque. see what's new from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. how they'll live tomorrow. for more than 116 years, ameriprise financial has worked for their clients' futures. helping millions of americans retire on their terms. when they want. where they want. doing what they want.
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all right, 39 minutes past. questions continue to mount over the shocking resignation of cia director david petraeus. citing an extramarital affair with his one-time biographer paula broadwell. some congressional leaders saying they should have been alerted earlier in concerns of a breach of national security. >> we received no advance
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notice. it was like a lightning bolt. the way i found out, i came back to washington thursday night. friday morning, the staff director told me there were a number of calls from press about this. i mean, this is something that could have had an effect on national security. i think we should have been told. >> the retired four-star general released a statement on friday announcing his resignation, saying, quote, after being married for over 37 years, i showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours. with us for this morning's panel, richard socarides, a former senior adviser to president clinton, and writer with thenewyorker.com. and oliver mcgee, republican strategist and author of "jumping the aisle" who joins us from washington. great to see you both. richard, let's begin with you. i want to talk a lot -- a little bit more about the timing. because there are a lot of questions about this, right?
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the best information that we have is the fbi was alerted in early summer about these e-mails between broadwell and another woman. they started investigating. and yet the white house wasn't told until 5:00 p.m. on election night. the president wasn't told until two days later. the house and senate intelligence committees weren't told until last week. you worked for president clinton. you were a senior adviser. you know about the inner workings of the white house. does this seem right to you? >> well, it seems like there's some confusion around exactly what happened and what people were thinking early on. i mean, i think that when you say that the fbi knew in the summer, i think there was some people who worked with the fbi who knew. i don't think the director of the fbi knew until mid-october or perhaps even later. and certainly the justice -- it's unclear when the justice department was informed. but it is fairly remarkable that in a situation like this that the president and the white house would not be told until, you know, right before his
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resignation. and certainly i think the mistake that was made was that congress ought to be informed at the same time that the senior people on the national security establishment are told. >> right. particularly when you're talking about the cia director. this is not a low-level resignation we're talking about. or a scandal involving a low-level member of the administration. having said that, richard and oliver, i want to get to you, because the justice points out that it followed protocol. that there was no national security breach as far as they know and there was no criminal wrongdoing because petraeus was a retired general. having said that, congressman peter king spoke on candy crowley's "state of the union" yesterday. let's listen to what he said. >> it seems to have been going on for several months and yet now it appears that the fbi didn't realize until election day that general petraeus was involved. it just doesn't add up. and you have this type of
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investigation, the fbi investigating e-mails. the e-mails leading to the cia director, and taking four months to find out that the cia director was involved. >> oliver, i understand his point there. but, the justice department says it followed protocol. it pays very close attention to these types of things in terms of notification. shouldn't that be enough? >> yes, it should. essentially what we're looking at is questions of executive judgment. and executive judgment about empathy, asking the proper questions, and ultimately service. and when we look at the service of general petraeus, he's a war hero and essentially the role of congress and even the executive branch is to ask the appropriate questions, but at the same time have empathy in regards to the personal choice, the personal life, at the same time is there really a national security question associated with that personal choice and personal
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life? and so far what i'm seeing right now is that there is not. >> let's talk quickly about the fiscal cliff because it's 50 days to the fiscal cliff. president obama, as you know, has invited congressional leaders to the white house on friday. for those who don't know, we were talking about $60 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts at the end of december. it will affect 90% of americans. i think everyone agrees there will be some sort of compromise, right? the question is, richard, what will it look like? >> i think the message from the election to everyone is that people want government to work and i think the moment is right. i mean, there's a mood after the election where people want republicans and democrats to come together to reach some common ground. so i do think they will come to an agreement. we don't know exactly what the agreement is. i think president obama is right to stand firm, to stand his ground, and say that any deal is going to have to involve increasing the tax rates on the wealthiest americans. and i think that should be the case. and hopefully the republicans will come around to this.
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but yet i think the republicans have some good ideas -- >> let's talk about that very quickly, because i've got to wrap, oliver. bill kristol as you know, conservative pundit, weekly standard, sort of dropped a bombshell on sunday when he said that republicans need to fall on their sword. that it's -- it's time that, that they agree to what the democrats want. get this over with. the republicans lost the election. i mean is it time for the republicans to sort of come to the table and give a little bit more? >> well, ultimately what the american people are going to observe is the project in negotiation. negotiations about finding joint value. i agree with richard the election is a time for hope and optimism. and that's what we have. hope on the left with regards to jobs and optimism on the right with regards to growth. so, falling on the sword for growth or falling on the sword for jobs is really not going to add value. what the american people said in going back to the founding
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fathers is, if the romney 47 and the obama 47 can't agree the 6% basically went to obama as a result of the perfect storm between isaac and sandy and basic lir they saying we're going to use the tools the founding fathers gave us, which was gridlock. >> oh, please. >> so really -- >> say it isn't so. >> say it isn't so. but ultimately that's a lesson for us all in our process of political advantagement to come to the table and watch these two types in president obama and speaker boehner to really come to value negotiation. i'm from cincinnati, ohio, the queen city of ohio. and john boehner, as well. and we cincinnatiens as speaker boehner may say, is that we can get to the table and we can negotiate. he's already sent a signal that he wants to do that and i believe that president obama wants to do that, too. they both have an interest. the white house line is saying we don't have a deal here we're
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going to go into recession while boehner is saying business is telling him, hey, let's stop the bonds market from falling apart and make sure that we can pay our national debt. >> republican strategist oliver mcgee. let's hope for a kumbayah moment. richard socarides, thanks to you both this morning. >> thank you. mystery surrounds a missing american journalist thought to be held hostage in syria. coming up, his parents' emotional appeal and why some say the clues found in a video that they just don't add up. there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products differ. women and children should avoid contact with application sites.
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parents of a missing american journalist in syria are now in neighboring lebanon this morning making an impassioned appeal for their son's return. they say 31-year-old austin tice. in september they say he appeared blindfolded held at gunpoint on a video posted on youtube. this is a screen cap that you're looking at. but there are questions about the authenticity of the video. videos like it are usually shared through extremist websites, not on youtube. also what the captors are wearing would not normally be found in syria. arwa damon joins us now. the parents talked to reporters a short time ago. what did they say? >> they had one really straightforward point, and that was a plea to anyone who may have any information on the whereabouts of their john, who may be able to help them bring him back home safely. austin crossed into syria
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illegally from turkey earlier in the year, went missing in mid august on the outskirts of damascus. his parents are saying that they are reaching out, both directly and indirectly, and have been to the syrian government. the syrian government, according to his parents saying that they have no information on the whereabouts of their son. they have also been reaching out to various other groups inside syria. they had been able to retrace austin's last steps to that damascus suburb, but since then, he has not been heard of. the questions raised in this video, because of the questions regarding its authenticity have led some people, including some people in the state department, to believe that the syrian government does, in fact, have him in their custody. when it comes down to the parents, what has been incredibly difficult for them has been this blackout when it comes to any sort of concrete information on the whereabouts of their son. also some new developments, anti-government forces have joined together to form one coalition group. what can you tell us about that?
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>> yes, this newly formed group just formed yesterday, in fact, in doha, somes after a series of very intense meetings between the syrian national council, the body that tried to establish itself as the legitimate government of syria in opposition but it was viewed by many within syria, and by other nations as being perhaps too islamist. too controlled by the muslim brotherhood. this new coalition that has formed that the u.s. has already come out and said that it will initially support represents all walks of life. the head of the coalition, interestingly is a former sunni imma'am from damascus. he's considered to be a moderate. his two deputies, one of them a very prominent businessman. a known activist and a woman, very well known for her advocacy of women's rights. the next hope, of course, is this body will be able to garner the political, financial, and potentially perhaps military support of the opposition has been asking for for quite some
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time. >> arwa damon, thank you very much. all right coming up, lance armstrong's shameless tweet sticking it to the man and saying, look at the jersey. we're going to show you what he said next.
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welcome back. it's 5:57 in the morning. take a look at the top cnn trends on the web this morning. >> can't take these away. lance armstrong posting this shameless tweet over the weekend. with the heading back in austin and just laying around with his cycling jerseys in the background there. cycling's ruling body stripped him of those titles after one of the most damning doping reports
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ever. accusing him of taking performance enhancing drugs. armstrong has never admitted using drugs, or answering the charges. and to check out our top cnn trends head to cnn.com/trends. >> and this is interesting. the folks at snl, producers and writers getting their first crack at the 2012 election. check it out. >> i still love you, america. i do. but you've hurt my feelings very, very much. >> father! hello, father. >> hello, tag. >> i'm so very angry, father. >> uh-huh. >> i wish i could punch america in the face. i do, i tell you. >> now, now, now. this is not a time for anger, tag. >> so what's next for you, father? >> oh, i don't know. there's so much i want to see and do. i'd like to learn how mayonnaise
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is made. as i like mayonnaise very, very much. >> according to poll data, president obama's victory on tuesday was due largely to his popularity with both college students and the unemployed. so basically obama became president the same way budweiser became the king of beers. after this week's election, 19 women will now hold seats in the senate which is the highest number ever. and no one is happier about that than the pantsuit industry. >> "early start" continues right now. sex scandal at the cia. lawmakers are now questioning who knew what and when about david pet race and his extramarital affair. and whether it put security at risk. hurtling toward the fiscal cliff. lawmakers leaving the door open for compromise in congress. road rage on the nascar track. a crash leads to a wild melee
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between pit crews, on live television. wow. that was crazy. >> it is crazy. >> good morning. welcome, everybody. i'm soledad o'brien. >> good morning, everybody, i'm alina cho. john and zoraida have the day off today. it is 6:00 a.m. in the east. so glad you're sitting next to me. >> it's so nice to be with you. >> we are all friends. >> we are young friends but for a long time. up first this morning, new details about that chain of events that cost the cia director david petraeus his job. he stepped down after he admitted an affair with his biographer paula broadwell. the affair came to light in an investigation investigation that was triggered by broadwell's e-mails to a petraeus family friend. lawmakers are questioning petraeus' version of events, demanding to know why they were left in the dark about the probe, and also any potential threat to national security. brings us to cnn's barbara starr live at the pentagon for us this morning. good morning. >> good morning, soledad. well, as the days have mounted since petraeus' resignation, so do the questions.
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lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are questioning the timing behind the revelation. house majority leader eric cantor said an fbi employee told him in october about the petraeus affair. by that time, an fbi investigation was already under way. the fbi told the director of national intelligence, james clapper, on election night, according to a senior u.s. intelligence official. the white house says it was notified the day after the election, and the president the following day. that doesn't make sense to house homend security chairman peter king. >> it seems this has been going on for several months and yet now it appears that they're saying that the fbi didn't realize until election day, general petraeus was involved. it just doesn't add up. >> reporter: "the new york times" reports the fbi actually started its investigation late this summer. the house and senate
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intelligence committees were also caught by surprise. >> are you going to investigate why the fbi didn't notify you before? >> yes. absolutely. i mean, this is something that could have had an effect on national security. i think we should have been told. >> reporter: the fbi was investigating harassing e-mails from petraeus' biographer. the trail led to paula broadwell. who co-wrote "all in" a biography of petraeus. broadwell described her extraordinary access to the general earlier this year, on cnn. >> at some point i think he realized i was taking this research very seriously. i was sharing hardship with the troops and risk and so forth and decided to open up a little bit more access. but we had a relationship before i went there, as far as this desser tags was concerned, so it just took it to another level. >> the end result was a flattering biography, summed up this way when she appeared on the daily show to promote it. >> the real controversy here, is
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he awesome or incredibly awesome? >> reporter: broadwell is a married mother of two. she's an honors graduate of west point, a retired army reserve major who served for 15 years. petraeus resigned friday, admitting to cheating on his wife of 38 years, holly. and citing, quote, extremely poor judgment. a u.s. official says petraeus was never the target of the investigation, and his communications were never compromised. now, petraeus was scheduled to testify on capitol hill later this week, about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. a very controversial matter. he was supposed to talk about what he knew and when he knew it. now, it will, of course, will be his deputy, and it remains to be seen whether congress will make the extraordinary step of issuing a subpoena to compel him to appear at some point. >> barbara starr at the pentagon for us. thank you, barbara. more, much more on the petraeus scandal later this morning on
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"starting point." i'm going to be talking with cnn military analyst james "spider" marks and retired army brigadier general mark kimmitt about that topic. 50 days left in 2012, 50 crucial days left until america goes over the so-called fiscal cliff and more signs this morning that we could see a deal. the big news this weekend was conservative pundit and weekly standard editor bill kristol telling republicans it was time to fall on their sword. >> the conservative movement has to pull back, let people float new ideas, let's have serious debate. don't scream and yell when one person says it won't kill the country if we raise taxes on millionaires. it really won't i don't think. i don't understand why republicans don't take obama's offer to raise taxes on everyone. really the republican party is going to fall on their sword for millionaires, half of them who voted democratic and half of them who live in hollywood? >> the question remains, what would a deal look like? and is there time left this year to put a deal together?
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jonathan allen is a senior washington correspondent for politico who joins us from washington this morning. good to see you. good morning. let's talk a little bit more about that. this fiscal cliff is what everyone is concerned about. talking about tax hikes and spending cuts that will affect 90% of americans. i think everyone agrees there will be some sort of compromise, right? but what do you think it will look like? >> i think likely you're probably looking at a short-term fix. seems unlikely that they'll be able to get something done before they go home for the year. but you're looking at a president who's calling for what he says is a balanced approach. where you would raise some taxes, cut some spending to replace some of the things that are about to happen as part of the fiscal cliff. including the sequestration, including the expiring tax cuts, but you've got house republicans who still say they don't want to raise rates on individual income taxes and other taxes, so there's still -- still some distance to be bridged between these two sides. >> the president says he's willing to compromise, though.
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and you heard what bill kristol said. it's time for republicans to fall on their swords. so, i just want you to talk a little bit more specifics, if you had to look into that crystal ball there, who is going to give a little bit more in this negotiation? >> look, i think there's already been some give. we saw this in 2011, they came very close to an agreement, and they sort of blew up at the end, the gang of six had suggested there was more revenue available than the president was about to agree to, and he walked away from it. and then boehner walked away from it. so we've seen the outline of what a deal would look like, and it would be revenue above what most of the republicans wanted. i think they're going to have to give something. the question is where do they get that revenue? what taxes go up? which people have to pay taxes now that aren't paying taxes now. we forget that there are a lot of corporations that don't pay taxes. a lot of them find ways around elements of the tax code.
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we call them loopholes. so you know, there's a lot of negotiating room here for both sides. the other thing is not only is the president talking about compromise, he's talking about campaigning. sounds like i was reading a report this morning, i believe it was in "the new york times." about how he's ready to go out on the campaign trail essentially to rally people around his view of a balanced approach. >> the president, as you know, will meet with top congressional leaders at the white house on friday. what do you think we can expect from that meeting? i mean, do you think there will be some real work there? is this going to be a real starting point in terms of real negotiation? >> i think this is really more about setting a tone for congressional leaders. this is more about telling them that he wants to strike a deal, that this is part of his early second term agenda. that he was re-elected, that he wants to work with them. but generally speaking when you have a big photo opportunity to put congressional leaders into the white house, it's not about talking details it's more about setting the tone and the parameters of the debate. >> jonathan allen, senior
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washington correspondent for politico. thanks so much. >> take care. coming up on "starting point," soledad will talk to the man with no new taxes pledge. grover norquist, about whether the gop will budge on this. >> he may not be as agreeable to the budging as we heard over the weekend. today is a work holiday for many in honor of veterans day, which was actually technically on sunday. president obama saluting america's military heroes. the president laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns, in arlington national cemetery on sunday. paid tribute to the sacrifice of service members. listen. >> on this day we thank all of our veterans from all of our wars. not just for your service to this country, but for reminding us why america is and always will be the greatest nation on earth. >> the president also said that this is the first veteran's day in ten years with no american troops who are serving in iraq. "the new york times" says it's moving forward with its brand-new ceo mark thompson, despite a scandal rocking his
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former employer, the bbc. the british broadcaster's director of news, helen bowden, is stepping aside, as is her deputy steven mitchell after a bbc report wrongly linked a former conservative politician to child abuse. the head of the bbc, george entwistle, resigned over the weekend. after winning their first eight games the atlanta falcons are no longer the only undefeated team in the nfl. the falcons fell to the new orleans saints, yay, on sunday. score was 31-27. new orleans quarterback drew brees looked amazing tossing three touchdown passes as he let the saints to victory. >> who knew you were such a big football fan. >> the giants can't win -- >> coming up, recovery from superstorm sandy. inching along this morning. still very much a crisis for people living in the hardest-hit areas. if you live around this area, you know that. we're going to go live to new york's rockaways. coming up next.
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but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together.
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at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. welcome back, everybody. first there was hurricane sandy. then that nor'easter rolled through. two weeks after it all started people in the far rockaway section of queens still don't have electricity. not only that, it's very tough to get around. people there are out of food. they're out of supplies. they don't have medication. and in many cases, they're desperate for help. victor blackwell is in far rockaway this morning with an update for us. victor, good morning. >> good morning, soledad. some very sad news for this morning. we learned that overall in new york city the death toll from superstorm sandy was increased to 43. and that additional person was from this community. a 77-year-old man who died at the hospital from injuries he suffered after falling down the
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stairs after the storm. but, there is some good news for this community. the power came back on here, about two hours ago. you can see over my shoulder the lights here, so there are still about 95,000 people, according to lipa, across three counties, without power. in fact, on this side of the street, you can see there are lights, on that side of the street, not so much. let's show you some of the things that are here. we spoke with dee who was here just a few moments ago about all the things that are piled up here in front of her home. and she told us that volunteers are coming to drop off food, to drop off water, and kind of just leaving it here and it's creating a bit of a mess. we'll learn from dee in just a moment. but if you look over here, they're also dropping off clothes. and when we drove up we asked is this just garbage kind of piled up in the community? but there's a tarp there, and volunteers, people from across the city, are coming here just to drop off whatever they can. but it's been sitting out in the elements. it looks like snow but it's really mist.
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this deep, thick fog here. it's also making it very dangerous to drive around. soledad? >> it's hard to believe that we're starting the third week now and people are only now just getting their power on. what, what's the government, the state government trying to do in terms of relief because, i don't think everybody realizes the degree which people are hurting there. still. >> well, yes, certainly still hurting here. and governor andrew cuomo is working on a $30 billion package, submitting it to the federal government for relief to help with the transportation system. preparing the state for some type of catastrophe, there's no other word for it, like this in the future, so there aren't these long gas lines. we will find out because there's a lame duck session and there are these fights over spending, how much of that money will come in. but again the request will be for about $30 billion we're hearing from state officials. >> wow. it will be interesting to see if that actually gets approved. victor blackwell, great to have you.
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appreciate it. >> 15 minutes after the hour. let's get you up to date on the news. what did they know and when did they know it? lawmakers demanding answers from the cia, the fbi, and the white house, about the events leading to the resignation of cia director david petraeus. he stepped down on friday, after admitting an extramarital affair with his biographer paula broadwell. the affair came to light because of an fbi investigation into alleged threatening e-mails that broadwell was sending to another woman. a petraeus family friend. devastating blast to tell you about. seemingly coming out of nowhere. authorities in indianapolis are trying to determine what caused an explosion. this is the aftermath you're looking at, left two people dead. neighborhoods shattered. the blast and a fire ball leveled two homes. happened over the weekend. dozens of other homes were damaged. hundreds of residents had to be evacuated and the damage is estimated to be more than $3.5 million. they still don't know exactly what caused it. check out this flooding in venice, italy. the city surrounded by water
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anyway but this is getting a little bit ridiculous. venetians and tourists having to slog through waist-high water. an astounding 70% of the city is flooded. the tuscan region, that's about 250 miles to the south, also dealing with flooding after intense storms moved through that area. did you see this brawl on the weekend? wreck on the track leads to this all-ought brawl. happened on sunday, nascar race in phoenix. jeff gordon, he's number 24, intentionally takes out number 15, which is clint bowyer. in response to an earlier bump when gordon gets back to the garage area, bowyer's crew comes after him. and the fight's on. then bowyer tries to confront gordon at his hauler. crew members are like, look at this, it is completely out of control. i don't know bowyer but you know i have met jeff gordon a few times. he's such a nice guy. it's hard to believe this would happen. but they get competitive on the track. >> wow you think like ice hockey more than nascar for the brawling out of the vehicles. travel challenges can be
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figuring out a way to stay online when you're on the road. ways to get wi-fi to stay connected wherever you are. good morning. >> there are a multitude of ways to get online when you're traveling beginning with your smartphone. apps like wi-fi track and free wi- wi-fi. they can track down the closest wireless hot spots and figure out which ones are strongest and help you find ones that are free. you can also buy your own hot spot and take it with you. you can get them from most mobile providers and then share data with nearby devices like wireless connections at home. another alternative, let me just show you this one first, the mobile hot spot is this one, it's the black part. so it's mobile -- >> is it expensive? >> that's a good question. i'll have to get back to you on that. but it's small and convenient. and hoo cares about the price if you can get what you want. okay. you can also get a usb internet stick that works for just one device like a hot spot, taps into the provider's mobile
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network and charges you monthly. here's the stick right here. >> that's great. >> everything portable and nice. >> i like the jet pack. >> i have my fi which is kind of like -- >> i need to get with this. you guys already have this stuff. a few mobile networks and apps even help you tether your phone, that means you can hook it up to your lap tap and the cell phone connects you to the internet. check with your cell phone company if they offer that option. and if you're somewhere with only a hard line to the internet you can plug in to apple airport express, that is this here, you see it's small as well. turns one phone line into a wireless signal for up to ten connections so sadly there's really no excuse now for not getting your work done while you're traveling. >> i don't have internet. i can't possibly get anything done. >> no worry. >> can i keep this? >> enjoy, ladies. >> there you go. >> oh, i like that. >> thanks very much. >> alison, thank you so much. coming up a look ahead to the opening bell on wall street.
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welcome back, everybody. we're minding your business. u.s. stock futures are up, indicating that the markets will be opening higher this morning. >> lots of volatility. the markets are going to be about, alison kosik in for christine romans talking about the fiscal cliff. >> it is one of the certainties
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of the markets these days and volatility because of the looming fiscal cliff. the s&p 500 which is the best indicator for your stocks and 401(k) fallen about 2.5% since election day. this week we're going to get several reports on the manufacturing sector and those are going to give us an update on the health of the economy, drawing attention away, maybe, from the gridlock in washington over the fiscal cliff. and europe's debt crisis also in focus this week. greece's parliament passed a budget for 2013 last night. this is a key step that gets the country closer to $40 billion in additional bailout money from the european union. and today, eurozone finance ministers are meeting in brussels to discuss the next step for greece, and the overall debt problems in the region. add one more to the list 6 of stores opening early. toys "r" us announcing it's opening early on thanksgiving night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. forget black friday. it all happens on thursday. so that's an hour earlier than last year. the retailer says it's focusing on electronics sales, including its own tablet devices for kids.
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target and walmart they're also opening up earlier on thanksgiving night. we're laughing about it, but the customers are demanding it. and the stores are bringing it. and we're laughing that you're going to be eating turkey and running to the stores. >> they'll start having like a big table and you can get fried turkey in a basket, and snarf down dinner -- >> -- make sense. >> no -- >> if you're eating dinner, i'm not one of those people, but if you're eating dinner wouldn't you rather go at night rather than wake up at 4:00 in the morning? like you do every day. >> -- woke up at 3:00. >> i'm just saying. >> what's a good way to work off your meal? no. >> no one's sitting around watching tv >> where was all the hostility that happened -- >> happened in the stores. >> there you go. >> -- in the stores. >> thank you allison. fbi apparently was investigating over the summer yet the white house said it did
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not know about the affair involving the cia director until after the election. the timing of that revelation and other questions in this bombshell scandal, we'll take a look at those coming up. ome this line is a convenience. how you doing today? i'm good thanks. how are you? i'm good. [ gordon ] but for others, it's all they can afford. every day nearly nine million older americans don't have enough to eat. anything else? no, not today. join me, aarp, and aarp foundation in the drive to end hunger by visiting drivetoendhunger.org. in the drive to end hunger meet the 5-passenger ford c-max hybrid. when you're carrying a lot of weight, c-max has a nice little trait, you see, c-max helps you load your freight,
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the petraeus affair shakes washington. key lawmakers now questioning why they weren't told. even though the fbi had been investigating for months. an american journalist
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believed to be held hostage in syria. his parents in an emotional appeal for his release. and the new coach of the l.a. lakers. it's not the guy everyone's been talking about. how about that. not phil jackson. welcome back to "early start," everybody. i'm alina cho. >> and i'm soledad o'brien. it is 29 minutes past the hour. the nation's capital still reeling from that abrupt resignation of the cia director, david petraeus, because of an affair with his biographer. triggered some new questions about the fbi investigation, and demands from lawmakers concerned about a possible breach of national security. cnn's barbara star is following those developments for us. she's live at the pentagon. barbara, let's talk about that. the timing of this investigation. it has some lawmakers very unhappy. >> it does, indeed, soledad. and they're unhappy in no small part because they were so surprised by it. many lawmakers on the intelligence committee, both the house and the senate, saying they had no clue until last friday when it really -- when it
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all came to light, and happened. by all accounts, the director of national intelligence, petraeus' boss, didn't know about it until election night, the white house was informed the next day. the president, the day after that. how do you have the fbi looking into the affairs of your cia director and the president isn't told about it? these are some key questions on capitol hill. the intelligence committee saying they're supposed to be notified of any critical development in intelligence. they didn't know about it. listen to senator dianne feinstein, the chairwoman of the senate intelligence committee. you think you need to hear from petraeus? >> we may well. and we may well ask. i think that's up to the committee. i think we should have this first hearing which is the way they wanted to set it up and then the committee will make the decision. >> she is talking about petraeus' once expected appearance on capitol hill on thursday. to testify about the attacks
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against u.s. consulate in benghazi. a very controversial matter. petraeus was supposed to come down about what he knew, and when he knew it. about that. now, of course, it will be the acting director of the cia who will appear. a political question in washington, will congress subpoena petraeus at some point? feinstein indicating it still could happen. >> barbara starr for us at the pentagon. thank you. appreciate it. president obama honoring america's veterans in a wreath-laying ceremony to mark veterans day. the president marked the solemn occasion at arlington national cemetery, the service of those who have gone above and beyond to serve their country. >> today a proud nation expresses our gratitude. but we do so mindful that no ceremony, no hug or handshake is enough to truly honor that service. >> the president also pointed
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out this is the first veteran's day in a decade without americans serving in iraq. >> in new york city they marched in the annual veteran's day parade. this year is a little different, though. the war council which organized the parade promoted the event as a rally for storm victims. >> so great that they did that. people in american west still digging out after a major blast of winter. parts of utah, including salt lake city, were hit really hard with snow. our alexandra steele is here with a look at that. 51 inches, alexandra? >> absolutely. what a banner start to the season. snowbird, 51 inches. if you're a skier or boarder in the west, maybe this is a harbinger of things to come, right, after a lackluster year last year. certainly beneficial for so many out west. look at some of those, bountiful, 31 inches, salt lake 15 inches. what happens is this very strong
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front, with a lot behind it, a lot of energy, now mostly just a rainmaker, even some severe weather yesterday. on the back side of it, though, very cold temperatures. dropping just expediently quickly, as we look here we're going to watch this front push eastward, and we're going to see ahead of it very warm temperatures, for those of you in the northeast, the mid-atlantic, the southeast, warm day, a little bit above average. behind it, temperatures about 10 to 20 degrees below average. and then, pacific northwest, our next storm system coming in. potentially a harbinger of things to come. you can see it moves through the east coast, right along that 95 corridor on tuesday, and with it temperatures dropping off just as they have farther west, like places like chicago, 70 yesterday, 36 degrees today. that's indicative of this front and what's behind it. wednesday in the 40s. syracuse, 70s today. 40s tomorrow. and through wednesday and
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thursday. you know similar scenario from pittsburgh to philadelphia, so much colder air behind this cold front, right. that's the main. big picture, pretty clearly there's the warmth, there's the front, and much cooler temperatures, even in minneapolis, only 28 degrees today. you can see from oklahoma city, points west into south texas. so guys, big cool air coming in, no question about it, and temperatures dropping off. you know it when it's passed, temperatures dropping off 20 degrees. >> all right, alexandra, thank you. sunday night football action the bears and texas in chicago houston's ariane foster had a big night, rushed for 102 yards on 29 carries. scored the game's only touchdown. texans defense was all over jay cutler. they napped two interceptions before they knocked him out with a concussion right out of the game. final score houston 13 and chicago 6. big news in the sports world, the l.a. lakers have hired a new coach and his name is not phil jackson.
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you're looking at him there, that's former knicks coach mike d'antoni. he will replace mike brown who was fired last week. d'antoni had signed a four-year deal with the lakers. espn says lakers management really wanted phil jackson to return for his third stint as coach. they mean met with him over the weekend but the two sides could not come to terms on a new deal for jackson. apparently he wanted a limited travel schedule. and he wanted a two-year deal worth $10 million. >> and control. always comes down to that money, control and travel. >> not willing to budge on that. >> anyway. >> so didn't happen. >> congratulations, coach mike. you're the new coach. >> fallout now to talk about over the david petraeus scandal. it's continuing to grow this morning. key members of congress want to know why they weren't in the loop while the fbi was investigating the cia director's affair. we're going to talk about that straight ahead as we continue right here on "early start." u cs by making it without 100% real cheddar cheese.
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david petraeus' shocking resignation continues to raise questions from members of congress with some saying they should have been alerted earlier of concerns of a breach of national security. >> we received no advance notice. it was like a lightning bolt. the way i found out, i came back to washington thursday night, friday morning the staff director told me there were a number of calls from press about this. i mean this is something that could have had an effect on national security. i think we should have been told. >> the retired four-star general released a statement on friday where he announced his resignation. he said this, after being
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married for more than 37 years i showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. such behavior is unacceptable both as a husband and the leader of an organization such as ours. back now with us, richard socarides, former senior adviser to president clinton and writer with thenewyorker.com. also, oliver mcgee is a republican strategist and author of "jumping the aisle." oliver, we know that the time line somewhat. we know the fbi first sort of figured out the affair in the summer. that broadwell was interviewed on october 21st. she is the other woman, if you will. james clapper, though, the director of national intelligence, wasn't told until election day. the president apparently not notified until wednesday. what -- do you see, as some do, some kind of scandal in the timing itself? well, i think that what we're seeing is the question about transparency and disclosure in public management.
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usually the best strategy is to bring it all out, take your bath very early, use executive judgment, which is really empathizing with all parties involved, so that we don't have a look into politics of personal disruptions and things of that sort. the question here of whether we have a national security problem with regard to one's personal life is still debatable. right now, what i'm seeing going across airwaves is there is no national security breach. ultimately the general is in service as a hero, and that in that he was really looking at what i wrote about in my book "jumping the aisle." it's not me the person, rather we the people, and we the lawmakers who are accountable. in that sense -- >> but do we the people need to know -- it seems like there's no
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actual security breach, and "the new york times" quotes an official today that says the fbi was basically taking its time for a couple of reasons, to do it very carefully, and also to just make sure they wanted to know if there was any kind of evidence of security breach. you know, congressman peter king, richard, says essentially he thinks there's more to this. that maybe there's more of a conspiracy behind it. let's play a little clip of what he says. >> it seems to have been going on for several months yet now it appears that the fbi didn't realize until election day that general petraeus was involved. it just doesn't add up, and you've got this type of investigation, the fbi investigating e-mails, the e-mails leading to the cia director, and it's taking four months to find out that the cia director was involved. >> congressman king is not the only person who said, hmm, suspicious. >> there are definitely some questions that need to be answered. i'm not sure that that's exactly accurate that the fbi didn't know until right before the
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election, because they were involved in the investigation last summer. but, it may be that the fbi just sort of didn't know what they had, and it wasn't until they spoke to the principles, which was right before the election, exactly what they knew. but one thing that's clear is that congress should have been informed simultaneously with informing the president. i think that congress is rightfully concerned that something of this nature was going on that they didn't know about it. especially the leaders of the committees involved with intelligence should have been told earlier. and you never want a member of congress hearing about this in the newspaper. >> yes, dianne feinstein seems really, really angry. >> and rightfully so. >> and a lot of that, i think, is because we know there's going to be a testimony about benghazi, which would have been front and center involving petraeus, and now, i guess might not be. do you think he's going to, he's going to testify? i guess he could be called to testify. >> that's the $100,000 question right now, soledad. and it's perfectly valid question to raise.
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congress has subpoena powers to be able to find all answers to the questions that they are asking. in that sense they're using executive judgment because they're trying to ask questions so that they can ultimately do their service, which is to be oversight. they're the board of trustees and essentially they have to ask those tough questions and monitoring oversight of the executive branch as well as across all government. >> oliver, writer for newyorker.com. oliver mcgee is a republican strategist. soledad, thanks. 45 minutes after the hour. congressional leaders are demanding answers about the sudden resignation of cia director david petraeus. his downfall was apparently rooted in jealousy. the fbi uncovered petraeus' extramarital affair with his biographer, paula broadwell, when a petraeus family friend complained the mistress was sending her threatening e-mails. a partial recount in the hotly contested race for florida's district 18
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congressional seat. narrows the gap a bit between republican congressman alan west, and democrat patrick murphy. but it isn't enough to trigger an automatic recount. murphy is still ahead by a margin of more than half a percent. west's campaign manager is vowing to take legal action. >> wow, that's an interesting race to follow. a devastating blast, kind of came out of nowhere. authorities in indianapolis say they're still trying to determine what exactly caused this explosion that left two people dead, a neighborhood in ruins. the blast, and then the fireball subsequently leveled two homes. happened over the weekend. dozens of other homes were damaged. hundreds of residents were evacuated. damage is estimated to be more than $3.5 million. "the new york times" says it's moving forward with its brand-new ceo mark thompson despite a scandal rocking his former employer, the bbc. british broadcasters director of news helen bowden is stepping aside as is her deputy steven mitchell after a bbc report recently linked former
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conservative politician of child abuse. the head of the bbc george entwistle resigned over the weekend. >> big, big, big, big giant, big debut for the new james bond film "skyfall." did anybody here see it? hauled in nearly $88 million. it's the biggest opening ever for a bond film. >> all right. coming up, mystery surrounds a missing american journalist thought to be held hostage in syria. coming up, his parents make an emotional appeal, and why some say that clues found in a video just don't add up. we'll be live with arwa damon from beirut. my credit card rews are easy to remember. with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, i earn 1% cash back everywhere, every time. [ both ] 2% back on groceries. [ all ] 3% on gas! no hoops to jump through. i earn more cash back on the things i buy most. [ woman in pet store ] it's as easy as...
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all right. look what we have here. soledad you're going to look at what's happening. >> lots to talk about this morning. going to continue to talk about general petraeus, of course. his star now tarnished by that affair.
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dozens of questions surround the resignation of general petraeus as the head of the cia. we'll talk to germ james "spider" marks and brigadier general mark kimmett this morning. as we approach the fiscal cliff are we any closer to any compromise or will our tax dollars go up? grover norquist, the man with the no tax pledge will weigh in with us this morning. plus he's a business mogul who created a music label, fashion lines, russell simmons is about helping the nation's veterans. and she's one of the stars of the new movie link in, actress gloria reuben joins us live to take a look at the critically acclaimed movie about our 16th president. >> wow. >> a lot happening this morning. >> parents of a missing american journalist in syria are in neighboring lebanon this morning, they're making an impassioned appeal for their son's return. they say 31-year-old austin tice was in syria, on his way to lebanon, when they lost touch with him last august. in september, they say he appeared blindfolded, held at
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gunpoint, on a video posted on youtube. but there are a lot of key questions about the authenticity of the video. here's why. videos like this are usually shared through extremist websites, not on youtube. also, what his captors are wearing would normally not be found in syria. our arwa damon is in beirut. she joins us live. austin's parents talked to reporters a short time. first, all of these disdiscrepancies that just don't seem to add up, you cover this region for a long time. hat do you make of it? >> well what a lot of people are saying is that this is perhaps a video that was somehow fabricated. many people believe he is, in fact, in the custody of the syrian government although the government has been denying any information on his wheres about whatsoever. what we do know is that when he was last heard of he was on the outskirts of damascus. the family, of course, has been trying to obtain whatever information it can about his
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whereabouts. you can just imagine how difficult this news blackout for them has been. >> and let'salk a little bit more about that. what more did they say about their son's return? they made an impassioned appeal. >> they most certainly did. and they were quite poised while they were making this appeal. this is a very straightforward appeal. that is for any information whatsoever on the whereabouts of their son. here's a little bit of what they told journalists earlier. >> austin is a cherished son and beloved brother. if he were your son, or your brother, i ask, what would you do to find him? and return him to your family. >> now they did say that they have reached out to the syrian authorities both directly and indirectly and have not resulted or seen any concrete leads from that. they have also, of course, been
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speaking to various rebels, opposition activists, inside syria trying to retrace their son's footsteps. at this point in time they quite simply say that they have no information whatsoever on who is holding austin, and what it is that it would take for him to be brought back safely home. >> it's just incredible. normally the captors will come out, the video is pretty clear-cut. having said that, arwa, i know that you got word of some new developments out of syria. what can you tell us about that? >> yeah. new developments with regards to syria, actually, out of the capital of doha, there is a fairly intense meeting, the u.s. has been very involved in them, behind the scenes, as have other western and gulf nations, trying to bring together a new syrian opposition government per se. what they have managed to form is something that they're now calling the syrian national coalition. its head is a former imam of a very well-known mosque in damascus. the two other deputies also very
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well-known, respected individuals when it comes to the opposition. the hope is that this new coalition will be able to provide a unified front for the syrian opposition, one that can then take the critical steps of gaining international recognition. gaining finances, and perhaps eventually down the road even military support for what is happening. inside syria. >> arwa damon live in beirut for us. arwa, thank you, as always. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. ♪ make it worth watching. ♪ the new 2013 lexus ls. an entirely new pursuit. starts with ground beef, unions, and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes.
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one not let your past define the possibilities through your future but through that appreciating your past and appreciating where you come from and embracing that to help that become the woman i have become. >> good advice. and that's "early start" for a monday. i'm alina cho. "starting point" with soledad o'brien starts right now. morning, welcome, everybody. our starting point this morning, the scandal rose. questions and mystery, too, surrounding the affair that led general david petraeus to resign as the head of the cia. was there a threat to national security that caused him to step down? let's take a look. as we get closer to the fiscal cliff, some new signs of compromise. we'll tell you what that could mean for your tax dollars. and homes literally blown away in the middle of the night. an investigation now. we'll take a look at just what caused that deadly explosion to rip through an indiana neighborhood. a packed two hours for you this morning. former jork giants

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